We continue to see rather odd stories not just suggesting, but openly saying â€œWindows Phone is performing poorly, because they do not have 300,000 applicationsâ€ as if the other prominent mobile operating systems sprung full blown from the heads of their creators with hundreds of thousands of applications.

IDC analyst however has been pretty impressed with the rate at which the Windows Phone Marketplace has been adding applications.

â€œThe Windows Phone 7 Marketplace reaching 4,000 apps two months after launch has to be one of the most rapid ramp-ups in recent times, reaching this milestone faster than Android, which took from Oct 2008 to March 2009 to reach about the same level,â€ Al Hilwa, an analyst with research firm IDC, wrote in a Dec. 19 research note.

â€œWe can say that for a company that just a few months ago was an also-ran in mobile, having ten smartphones released in 30 countries is not a trivial achievement,â€ he continued. â€œI would not be surprised if Microsoft had the third largest app portfolio in the industry by the middle of next year.â€

â€œThey have really strong application development tools and a strong developer ecosystem from their PC universe and they have been putting in a lot of effort to bring them over,â€ Hilwa added in his research note. â€œNo one expected WP7 to take the market by a storm, but the role of the first release was to [put] Microsoft in the game. To be clear this is a long term battle that will be pivotal for Microsoftâ€™s long-term relevance.â€

Finally a voice of reason. We hope the naysayers are paying attention.